Tangled Souls
by Midorino Mizu
Summary: Sumeragi Hokuto, bored and alone in Tokyo, decides to explore her brother's library. She discovers, and performs , a spell which could have dire results.


_So, I have finally managed to write a fanfiction, by myself, and complete it. I'm really rather proud of myself. Despite, the title, which sounds like an angst fic to me, there's very little angst here.___

**Tangled Souls******

Midorino Mizu   


Sumeragi Hokuto was bored. Anyone who knew would be immediately be alarmed by this, but none of those people were present to witness her state of mind. 

Which, she reflected, was probably why she was so bored in the first place. She smiled gleefully. Subaru-chan and Sei-chan were so amusing. And Subaru had such a vast supply of blushes. 

Both Subaru and Seishirou were out of town on business. Subaru had a "very important" (his words, not hers) job for an old samurai family in Kamakura, and Sei-chan was at a veterinarians' convention in Kyoto. The apartment was unusually quiet without Seishirou's incessant teasing and Subaru's stammering replies. 

Hokuto sighed in pure exasperation. Her friends in Tokyo were all busy with school and such; she had completed her education in Kyoto, due to the private tutors she and Subaru had shared. Everyone else her age was still in high school. Normally, she would take the opportunity to work on her clothes design, but that was hardly worth it. Subaru wasn't around to model them. The expressions he got on his face were half the fun. 

Maybe there was something she could read in Subaru's library. 

Miles away in Kamakura and Kyoto, respectively, Sumeragi Subaru and Sakurazuka Seishirou felt fingers of ice-cold dread slide down their spines. It was a sensation that Subaru had known for years was related to Hokuto-chan and her schemes. Seishirou was only beginning to become familiar with it. 

Needless to say, both of them began to feel quite concerned. 

*** 

Honestly, Hokuto thought, Subaru would lead a most pathologically boring life if it weren't for her intervention. His library, which dominated the largest room in their apartment, didn't have a single novel or manga. It was filled instead with dusty tomes, with pages upon pages of mostly useless spells. 

Such staidness was unacceptable for the greatest omnyouji in Japan. 

Hokuto shrugged, and pulled out a book at random, and flipped it open. 

Destiny, apparently, was also bored on this day. There can be no other explanation for what next occurred. 

The spell displayed prominently on the page caught Hokuto's attention immediately, which was understandable; it was, after all, a spell designed for Sumeragi twins. Just not necessarily the current set. 

Twins ran in the Sumeragi family the same way emerald green eyes and jet hair did. There was a set every generation, and very often one of the twins would prove powerful enough to be named Clan Head. 

This had been the case through much of the Clan's official history, and this spell had been designed with this feature in mind. It was to be performed by the magically weaker of the two twins, in order to protect the stronger, the Clan Head, from the Sakurazukamori. In essence the spell switched the souls of the Sumeragis, so that the ritual assassin couldn't kill the Head. 

It had never actually worked, though no one was quite sure why. 

In theory, however, the spell could only be broken upon the death of the twin who had performed it, at which point the souls would bounce back to their appropriate locations. This was currently only a theory, as the spell hadn't been performed for over two hundred years. 

Hokuto was never one to put much stock in theories. 

*** 

Subaru was enduring the fumbling efforts of the house's teenaged daughter at performing the traditional tea ceremony. She clearly wanted to impress the Sumeragi Head with her skill. Unfortunately, she didn't have much. 

Nishitani Yui smiled dreamily at the sixteen-year-old boy across from her as she tried to successfully perform the ceremony her mother had drilled into her from birth. Sumeragi-san was pretty. He looked like an angel. 

Subaru smiled encouragingly at Yui-san, and lifted his cup to drink. 

A moment later, it came crashing to the floor, spreading shards of fine porcelain, and rivers of amber liquid, everywhere. Yui stared dumbfounded at the mess, and then burst into sobs. The Sumeragi, for once, didn't notice. He was too busy noticing something of far greater concern. 

In the space of a moment, Subaru had felt the world shift under his feet, and a blast of familiar power directed towards him. It was his sister's aura; he hadn't felt it often, since she usually didn't cast spells. 

When she had, the results had been less then favorable. 

Subaru stared mutely down at his hands. Whatever she had done had been serious; the markings that had branded him as the Sakurazukamori's prey for ten years weren't there anymore. 

He had to get back to Tokyo, right now. 

*** 

"Seishirou." The voice was one that had been ever present in his mind since he was fifteen. It evoked both the dying leaves of autumn and the beautiful silken petals of spring blossoms. 

It was the Tree. 

"What is it?" asked Seishirou irritably. He was in the middle of a job, and he hardly needed the distraction. It was bad enough that the stupid bureaucrat didn't have the sense to stay in Tokyo, where it would be convenient, but now the bloody Sakura had to nag at him. 

The Tree's voice was amused. "The Sumeragi's sister has done something quite interesting." 

"Really?" inquired the Sakurazukamori. "And what would that be?" 

"The Twin Spell." Supplied the Sakura. "Your Subaru-kun is having a fit." Being a sentient Tree was really rather boring, and thus the Sakura took its amusement wherever it could. The sixteen-year-old Sumeragi had proven to be an incredible source. "I've rarely seen him in such a state." 

Seishirou's golden-brown eyes glinted with amusement as he gathered power between his fingers in preparation for his victim's death. It was difficult to tell which circumstance he was amused by, the Sumeragis' predicament, or the quivering bureaucrat before him. 

But then, the cause hardly mattered. 

*** 

Sumeragi Subaru was contemplating the advantages of killing his sister. The spell would be broken, first of all, and he would never have to wear her hideous creations again. 

But his life would probably become quite dour. 

He had spent several hours on the phone with Kyoto, vainly searching for counterspell to the one Hokuto had performed. His grandmother had informed him that the Sumeragis did not possess such a spell. 

He turned from the phone to his twin, sitting quietly on the couch. "What were you thinking?" His tone was deadly quiet, almost dangerous. "Did you even think of the consequences of this?" 

Hokuto cringed. Subaru was in his lecturing mode, and while even she had to admit she probably deserved it, it didn't make it any easier to swallow. 

"Umm…no?" guessed Hokuto. She stared down at her hands, faintly etched with reversed pentagrams. "How long have these been on your hands, Subaru?" 

Subaru didn't reply, choosing instead to stalk off to his room. He returned a moment later with a pair of his gloves. "Put these on." 

"Why?" asked Hokuto. Subaru gave her a rather vicious glare, for him, at least. Though his grandmother had never told him precisely why he needed the gloves, he'd read extensively enough to guess. And since he had decided _not_ to kill Hokuto, he could hardly put her at such risk. 

"Just put them on." Subaru slumped down on the couch. "What the hell are we going to do?" he groaned. "Obaa-sama said that our family knew of no way to break this spell." 

In his ever-increasing depressed state, Subaru didn't notice the eagle-shaped shadow at the living room window. 

*** 

Seishirou had returned to Tokyo immediately after the completion of his job, but he was expected to be out of town for a few more days, so he didn't connect either Sumeragi, instead using his shikigami to observe them. 

Subaru's reaction was very much what Seishirou had expected from him, although certainly more forceful than he was used to. Hokuto was unusually subdued; she had clearly not expected this reaction from her twin. 

He wondered if Hokuto's soul was having this effect on him, or if the situation had simply forced the Sumeragi to overcome his timidity. 

Seishirou shrugged, and opened a book from his own library. He didn't know the counterspell that the Sakurazukas had developed, as it hadn't been necessary for a couple hundred years. Once it had been proven to be unsuccessful, the Sumeragis had abandoned using it. But it was necessary. As amusing as the situation was, he could hardly leave his Subaru-kun in it. Hokuto-chan just wouldn't be as fun to stalk. 

*** 

Hokuto was getting very worried. Subaru had locked himself in the library the day before, in order to search for a "magical cure-all spell." The tone he had taken with her since his return from Kamakura was very unlike him. She was glad that he did actually have a spine, but the wealth of sarcasm he was exhibiting was a bit shocking. 

The teenager sighed, slumping over the kitchen counter. Subaru had refused to emerge for either sleep or food for about twenty hours now. "If Sei-chan were here, maybe he could drag Subaru out." 

As if her words were some cosmic cue, the doorbell rang. Hokuto stood up and shuffled over to open it. The last thing she needed right now, she thought, was a visitor. 

Waiting patiently on the other side of the door was Sakurazuka Seishirou, in full harmless veterinarian mode. 

Seishirou beamed at Hokuto. "I just got home from Kyoto, and decided to come see you two." He poked his head around the corner, and turned back to the visibly deflated girl. "Where's Subaru-kun?" 

"In the library," muttered Hokuto. "I, uh, kind of performed a spell that I shouldn't have." 

Seishirou maintained his mask of innocence. "What spell?" 

"It's called the Twin Spell," explained Hokuto. "It was designed by own family hundreds of years ago to protect the Clan Head. It switches the souls of twins. The only known release is the death of the caster." 

"That is rather worrisome," agreed Seishirou solemnly. His smile broke through immediately. "I'm sure Subaru-kun will come up with a solution, though. He's so brilliant, after all." 

"If you say so, " groaned the girl. 

"Just the same," began the older man, as he let a sly look creep into his eyes. "I'd better stay the night to protect you two." 

"For protection, you say?" Hokuto laughed, briefly returning to her usual self. "I can hardly trust that. I'm pretty sure I would have to protect my poor little brother from you, instead." 

"Now, now, Hokuto. I'm just a poor veterinarian. I couldn't possibly have anything to offer rich bishounen like your brother." He sighed dramatically. "I will simply have to suffer in my love, and hope that one day he returns it. Come on, then. Let's go get Subaru-kun. It can't be healthy for him to be locked up in there for so long." 

*** 

The twins had fallen asleep rather quickly, mused Seishirou. Of course, they had probably been exhausting themselves trying to break the spell over the past few days. And Subaru likely hadn't slept. 

Just the same, the sleep spell he had cast over them probably also lent some assistance. 

Now that they were asleep, he could perform the counterspell he had researched to find for several hours the night before. Seishirou would have been in favor of letting them stay as they were for a bit; their slight reversal of characters was quite entertaining. But already, the imbalance was taking its toll on the twins. Both of them were beginning to look wan. 

The spell itself was complicated, but he had long since learned that most of the older magic was. It seemed that his ancestors had prided themselves on long, dramatic phrasing. Personally, he preferred a more business-like approach. 

It scarcely could be helped, though. With an impatient wave of his hand, the Sumeragi apartment faded into one of his illusions, and he began setting up the ofuda in an inverted pentagram. He seated himself in the center, and started to chant. 

The chant was long and drawn out, in the traditional Hindu pronunciation that peppered almost all omnyoujitsu. The wording itself took a good fifteen minutes, and he had to enter trance state for some time after he'd done that. 

Within a few moments of completing the incantation, Seishirou began to feel his energy and those of the Sakura permeate the apartment. It whirled around, seeking out its goal. 

In his mind's eye, he saw energy swirling around Subaru and Hokuto, breaking the binding placed on their souls, moving their spirits back to their appropriate locations. His markings, that he had placed on Subaru when he was fifteen, faded from Hokuto's hands and appeared once more of Subaru's bare ones. 

Seishirou smiled with satisfaction. The spell was complete. The Sakurazukamori stood up, and decided that looking in on his prey might be in order. He walked purposefully down the hall to where he knew the Sumeragis were sleeping. 

Stepping into the room, he immediately went to Subaru's bedside, where he simply stared down for a few moments. The moonlight pouring through the window lit up his hair and gave Subaru's skin a translucent quality. 

Subaru-kun really was his most beautiful possession. And he couldn't let anyone else tamper with him, not even Hokuto-chan. 

*** 

The sunlight poured into the bedroom, and Subaru groaned as he buried his head beneath the pillow. He was tired. He hadn't slept for two days, and he deeply desired to return to his slumber. Closing his eyes, he began to fall back asleep until he felt a familiar burn on his hands. 

His eyes popped open. He removed the pillow from his head, and sat up slowly in bed, staring at his hands. Thin markings, like fine-spun moonlight were etched on his hands in the shape of reversed pentagrams. 

They were back, like the faintest of tattoos. 

He continued to stare at his hands, feeling a combination of relief and loss. While he was certainly was glad to see tangible proof that his soul was in the right place again, he would miss his freedom. For a precious few days, his soul had been free, unbound to that of the mysterious Sakurazukamori. But that was over for now; he would have to put on his gloves again. Soon, his hands would be encased in the protective silk and leather once again. 

Subaru narrowed his emerald eyes. Just how _had_ his soul been returned to him? Nothing he had done yesterday had any effect whatsoever. 

"Is there something wrong, Subaru-kun?" An amused baritone voice came from the doorway, startling the Sumeragi. 

Subaru looked up, and immediately turned the shade of a pickled beet. Seishirou was in his doorway, with a towel loosely wrapped about his waist. Another was at his head, where he was rubbing excess water out. His amber eyes twinkled at the younger boy. Subaru's eyes went wide. "S-S-Seishirou-san!! What are you doing here?" 

Poor Subaru-kun, Seishirou thought, he looked like he wanted to bury himself under the covers. "Why Subaru, I'm hurt. You mean you don't remember that I stayed the night last night?" It was all he could do not to laugh. Subaru's face looked like it might explode at any moment. He did hope that the Sumeragi didn't pass out from all the blood flow to his face. 

"Subaru-chan!" yelled Hokuto from the kitchen. "Guess what! One of the spells you did yesterday must have worked, 'cause everything's back to normal!" She paused. "And get out of bed! You don't want Sei-chan to think you'll be a lazy wife, do you?" 

Seishirou took a single step into the room before calling out to the other Sumeragi. "I could never think so lowly of my Subaru-kun." 

Hokuto burst into laughter. "Well, I can hardly send Subaru-chan off to save Japan on an empty stomach." She paused, before addressing her brother once again. "Your outfit for today is on your dresser. I thought you might need something bright. Don't forget the hat!" 

"What are you making for breakfast, Hokuto-chan?" asked Seishirou as he turned and headed back towards the kitchen. 

"Omelets!" she caroled. "With lots of cheese!" 

Yes, Subaru thought as his gaze flicked from Seishirou's retreating figure, to the military-style suit in a hideous shade of orange on the dresser, everything was certainly back to normal. 

Sometimes, he wondered if abnormal would be less nerve-wracking. 

~fin 

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